Joseph Addison Quotes

Blessings may appear under the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let him have patience, and he will see them in their proper figures.

Nothing is so much admired, and so little understood, as wit.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Decius A style like this becomes a conqueror. Cato Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman. Decius What is a Roman, that is Caesar’s foe? 40 Cato Greater than Caesar: he’s a friend to virtue.

The Lord my pasture shall prepare, And feed me with a shepherd's care; His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye.

The House of Commons is the Representative of Men in my Condition. I consider my self as one who give my Consent to every Law which passes: A Free-Holder in our Government being of the Nature of a Citizen of Rome in that famous Commonwealth; who, by the Election of a Tribune, had a kind of remote Voice in every Law that was enacted. So that a Freeholder is but one Remove from a Legislator, and for that Reason ought to stand up in the Defense of those Laws, which are in some degree of his own making. For such is the Nature of our happy Constitution, that the Bulk of the People virtually give their Approbation to every thing they are bound to obey, and prescribe to themselves those Rules by which they are to walk.

Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.15

Let Caesar have the world, if Marcia’s mine.

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.

They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.

Cato Would Lucius have me live to swell the number Of Caesar’s slaves, or by a base submission 30 Give up the cause of Rome, and own a tyrant?

There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

I have rather chosen this Title than any other, because it is what I most glory in, and what most effectually calls to my Mind the Happiness of that Government under which I live. As a British Free-Holder, I should not scruple taking place of a French Marquis; and when I see one of my Countrymen amusing himself in his little Cabbage-Garden, I naturally look upon him as a greater Person than the Owner of the richest Vineyard in Champagne.